#the last part is regarding when her purpose swings into a negative morality and she's required to be Awful

[cursedfortune]

How does Mortem handle jealousy?

@swordduels

She doesn't. By that I mean, Mortem doesn't experience jealousy. She does not feel insecure about herself or her relationships typically enough to invite jealousy into her life. If she's ever insecure on something, it's situational and something she confronts head-on. Jealousy has no time or room to breathe and grow.

The closest thing I can give you to jealousy is how possessive she can be. It doesn't stem from a place of insecurity like jealousy tends to, however. It stems from being gifted a bond with another and being not just protective, but possessive of that bond. It doesn't manifest in the way of typical abusive relationships do. She doesn't seek to isolate, control, minimize the other(s). Mortem is just very aware of what someone means to her, that gratefulness for it being mutual has her coveting it.

It's similar to a child who grew up in a closet, getting glimpses of sunlight through the cracks of the door. She has lived in isolation for a very long time, when someone genuinely sticks around they are that sunlight she tries to hold onto. In a logical sense, she knows it isn't the way to do it but she's still growing in that area. Mortem tries to not make it someone else's problem, nor have someone think she doesn't value their ability to be independent. But it comes natural to witches that when someone is viewed as 'this is my person' or 'i think of you as my own', that they wish the other to be safe and comfortable because they know all too well what it's like not to be.

You add in her history and things get messy. She covets a mutual bond with another.

Jealousy doesn't factor in, however. Mortem has plenty of confidence in herself first and foremost, but she also has confidence in the relationships she forges with people. And if she doesn't? She processes it and then will bring it up with the other(s) involved. She has a very healthy ego, because arrogance often is a killer. Mortem knows the power of communication and expressing trust not just in actions, but in words.

Her life is a dangerous one but if you put that trust, time, effort and care into her she is going to return it in full. She will do everything in her power to protect it and if she can't... she'll tell you exactly why you need to run away from her for a time.

[ty-talks-comics]

Best of Marvel: Week of April 10th, 2019

Best of this Week: Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #5 - Tom Taylor, Yildiray Cinar, Nolan Woodard and Travis Lanham

Spider-Man has always been a hero ruled by his emotions. From becoming a hero after failing to save his Uncle Ben, to giving up his costume out of frustration, to feeling so much sorrow that he gives up his marriage to save someone else's life.

Right now is another one of those pivotal moments as Peter and Aunt May sit across from each other, her having broke the news that she’ll need to go through chemotherapy. Cinar absolutely nails the scene, showing the utter sadness in Peter’s face and the ever present look of hopefulness of Aunt May, knowing that she can beat the cancer.

Peter of course, tells her that he can’t make it to her first chemotherapy appointment and proceeds to run away from his problems, though he says otherwise. In his grief, he runs to clear his head and hears police sirens, alerting him to a chase in progress. He stops the chase and in anger, breaks the assailants wrist before recognizing him as a homeless kid that hangs nearby. The kid tells him that the only reason he stole the car was to get away from his mother’s abusive boyfriend.

So Peter, relating to kid’s need to get away, starts the car and proceeds to help him evade the cops. Tom Taylor really sells the idea that Spider-Man helps out those in his neighborhood. He didn’t have to help this kid and there are always bigger threats to handle, but he cares about his city. Spider-Man can swing across the city and even lift cars, but in a cool - COOL move, uses his webs to fling the car into the sky, making the cops think it disappeared. He doesn’t want to see this kid get hurt and knowing that he broke his wrist only makes him feel worse and he seeks the help of Doctor Strange.

Strange makes the homeless kid a cast and has a little talk with Spider-Man, noting his unusual recklessness. Peter unloads what he has on his mind and thinks about asking Strange to help her, but the good Doctor jokes about making deals with demons and says that sometimes things just have to run their natural course. The conversation does feel a little bit limp, especially after the emotional roller coasters that we’ve had to go through in Hunted, but also appropriate for the feel of the book especially as Peter shows up to support Aunt May with coffee and trash magazines.

These final pages hit me with how much Peter loves and supports his Aunt for all of the love and support she's given him. He knows it would have broken her heart just a little if he had missed it and her smile upon seeing him almost made me cry.

There’s something even further I want to dive into in regards to Aunt May and either direction this story can go. Do we need more of her? She’s been around for almost 60 years acting as Peter’s moral guide, support system and one of Marvel’s most powerful characters since her creation. She’s had many amazing storylines about her, around her and there are definitely many more that can be told. At the same time, because of One More Day, I’ve questioned why she’s lived this long.

One More Day is one of the more ludicrous, craptastic ways to prolong Peter’s “youthfulness” by having him give up his marriage to Mary Jane in a deal with Mephisto to save a dying Aunt May. Being married made the Peter seem more adult, more able to take care of himself, gave him a confidence that could have been better expanded on, but noooooooo. He had to get in his feelings and make a literal deal with the Devil to save a character that had already served her purpose in raising that boy.

I also think back to the emotional, powerful last moments of Spider-Man PS4, when Aunt May sacrificed herself so that New York could have the cure to Mr. Negative’s plague. Not only did it give Peter another bar to reach, it gave closure to an absolutely wonderful character. It allows for new stories to be told about Peter or new people being able to take her place as Peter’s guide with new, different perspectives.

I do think it’s time to let Aunt May rest and be with Uncle Ben. Maybe let Peter have a little bit of closure with one less person to worry about as she goes peacefully. She’s lost her husband, her charity foundation and now she’s losing her health and it’s time to stop hurting Aunt May. High recommend.

---------------------------------------------------

Parting is such sweet sorrow.

Runner Up: Dead Man Logan #6 - Ed Brisson, Mike Henderson, Nolan Woodard and Cory Petit

Since 2015, a year after Logan 616’s death, we've had a multitude of Wolverines. X-23 took up the mantle for a few years, Jimmy Hudson made his way from the Ultimate Universe in X-Men Blue, heck, even Sabretooth filled in the role of Wolverine as the badass good guy who occasionally killed people for a while, but none have been as great as the Old Man Logan from Battleworld.

During Secret Wars, Old Man Logan was reintroduced as part of the Wasteland on Battleworld and fought his way out, eventually landing in the repaired 616 Universe. His initial arc focused on him trying to stop his future from happening, but between an Amadeus Cho Hulk and his own apparent death, he realized that things were different and he adjusted accordingly.

After many adventures involving saving his resurrected wife, Mariko, to joining a new Weapon X team alongside Sabretooth to defeating a POWERFUL Maestro twice, Old Man Logan has more than justified his existence in the world. However, with his failing healing factor and his longing to return to his world, Logan's been searching for a way back home and thanks to Maestro and some fixing from Forge, there's a time machine waiting for him.

This issue was just a bunch of goodbyes. He apologizes and says goodbye to one of the best men he knows in Steve Rogers, saying that he was blinded by his past with Mysterio when he attacked the Avengers a few issues ago, thinking they were villains. Steve forgives him and wishes him well. He says a final goodbye to Mariko, asking her to take care of the young kid that would be his wife some fifty years later.

The best one… THE BEST GOODBYE, is the one he makes to himself. I'd wondered when or if it would actually happen, but Old Man Logan finally meets his younger, also resurrected self and they have a beer. In a heartfelt scene, Old Man Logan wonders if he should tell his younger self anything about the future. Logan surmises that it does, in fact, go terribly and Old Man Logan just tells him, “Never stop fighting. Because the moment you put those claws away for good, that's when you lose everything that matters.” a bar fight breaks out and the two decide to have a little fun, resulting in a BEAUTIFUL shot by Mike Henderson of both Wolverines with their claws popped.

The final goodbye is to the X-Men, of course. Jubilee, Glob and Forge and I think a few others and at this point I almost want to stop reading.

It's been a roller coaster of a ride with this character and there have been a thousand teases of him returning, but now it's real. Back to the hell of the Wasteland after what I can assume in Marvel Time has only been weeks or months for him. A world where Thor's hammer serves as a grim reminder that there's no hope as people futilely try to lift it, a world where people like Doctor Doom still live and force people to fight monsters in gladiator arenas, a world where, according to Old Man Quill, has a religion of nihilists ready to annihilate planets on a whim.

Welcome back to The Wasteland, Logan. Welcome back to hell.